Healing
by kathryn ashworth
Summary: An alternative Gary/Miranda story, they don't meet at uni but in a chance encounter one lunchtime.
1. Chapter 1

The restaurant was unusually busy when I went next door for lunch, and I had managed to get the last table, and was agonising over my lunch choice when Clive came over looking rather worried.  
"Cos we're so busy do you mind sharing the table?"  
"No it's fine." Especially if I was sharing it with the rather handsome man who had just walked in. Well my luck was in, he was joining me, was rather disappointed to see a wedding ring though.  
"Is it always this busy? It's just I'm new here and I don't want to spend them somewhere this chaotic."  
"No, this time of day usually pretty quiet. So your wife needen't get jealous of us."  
"Oh, no." He said seeming to avoid the comment.  
"You said you're new in town, so any particular reason, and I feel like I'm interviewing you for a job, sorry."  
"No, it's fine, a friend of mine has a surgery here and offered me a job, and there were just too many bad memories in Cirencester."

Our conversation was interrupted by the food arriving, but was quickly resumed over a hot chocolate.  
"You said your friend had a surgery here, doctors or dentists?"  
"Doctors, do you happen to know a Dr Gail?"  
"Our paths may have crossed, yes."  
"Sebastian." I may have almost spat out my hot chocolate laughing at that. "And I have been friends since medical school, and was in fact my brother in law."  
"Oh dear, that poor man has met my mother."  
"She can't be that bad. I'm sorry I've spent the entire time talking you without introducing myself, I'm Gary."  
"Miranda, and she is, trust me."  
"Well Miranda, I've had such a pleasant time, why don't we meet for dinner, say outside here at 7?"  
"Sounds lovely, I'll see you then." Looks like you've pulled, Clive said when he came over with the bill.

I left a hastily scribbled note for Stevie so she would know where I went. 'Have a date tonight. Off to do emergency shopping and have hair done. Explain all tomorrow. M.' Things were going worryingly smoothly found a decent outfit in the first shop, the hairdresser listened when I tried to explain what I wanted, I don't look like Princess Anne and it didn't rain when I came out, it was only when I got back to the shop that the problems started.  
"You have a date and don't think to consult the font of the Allure for advice."  
"Yes, because whenever you have given me dating advice things have gone wrong, so giving it one last try myself."  
"So what's he like?"  
"Gorgeous, and a doctor, only problem is he knows Dr Gail so hoping he doesn't here that I'm a mad woman and change his mind, And if you don't mind I have a date to get ready for, and if mum comes in, get rid of her please."

I was very impressed when he arrived at 7 on the dot, there was a bit of confusion about whose umbrella we would take as the rain I was glad to have missed earlier made an appearance, but Clive said I could pick mine up in the morning so that sorted that.  
"So? Where are we going?" Gary asked, not unreasonably.  
"A little Italian place , it's not far."  
When we were sat down and were presented with our menus I asked an awkward question that had been niggling me all day.  
"You don't have to answer but when I mentioned your wife earlier you seem to dodge the comment, and described Sebastian as your ex brother in law, so nasty divorce?"  
"No, that would be easier to explain to people, I'm actually a widower, almost 2 years ago."  
"Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."  
"No, it's fine. Talking about it helps, her name was Kate and we met at uni, in fact we met when she ran over my foot with her bike."  
"Is that why you still wear the ring?"  
"Yeah, I promised her at the funeral that unless I had to for work, I wouldn't take it off, it's like having her with me everyday."  
We spent the rest of the meal, tactfully avoiding the subject, and just learning about each other. He asked me out again, we're going for a drink on Friday night, and I even got a kiss at the door, which is always a good sign, and I am off to bed as I am going to need a good nights sleep if I have to face Stevie in the morning. Goodnight.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N the italics is Gary's POV at Kate's grave

Despite the fact that some of the small talk was less than cheerful, I had a really nice evening, but not looking forward to the inevitable grilling I'm going to get from Stevie.  
"Morning, so how did the date go?" First question. Help  
"Rather well actually, we're going out again on Friday."  
"Oh, getting serious then."  
"Probably not actually, this was his first date in a while, and no not because he finds the idea terrifying, he lost his wife almost 2 years ago, and couldn't face the idea."  
"That's awful, what happened?"  
"I don't know seemed a bit insensitive to ask."

"_Hi_, _Kate_, _know_ _I_ _don't_ _need_ _to_ say _I_ _miss_ _you_, _but_ _I_ _do_, _and_ _now_ _for_ _the_ hard _bit_. _I've_ _met someone_ , _we've_ _only_ _been_ _on_ _one_ _date_ _so_ _far_, _but_ _I_ _think_ _you'd_ _like_ _her_, _she's_ _got_ _a_ _great_ _sense_ _of_ _humour_. _I've_ _told_ _her_ _about_ you, _she_ _even_ _understands_ _about_ _the_ _ring_."

"What are you doing for lunch?"  
"I was going to that new sandwich place, why do you want something."  
"Yeah, just can't decide."  
"You have until I get my coat in to choose."  
When the door opened I expected it to be mum, so was surprised to see Gary.  
"I couldn't wait until tomorrow to see you, fancy a picnic?"  
"That sounds lovely."  
"Have you." Stevie stopped mid sentence when she saw Gary. "You must be the elusive Gary then, I'm Stevie."  
"I don't know about elusive, but yes I'm Gary."  
Knowing that if we stayed any longer we would have been subjected to a demonstration of 'The Allure'.  
"Hi mum, bye mum."  
Great, I'll be getting another grilling when I get back.  
"Who was that man Miranda was with?"  
"Gary, they went on a date a couple of days ago, and are going out again tomorrow."  
"What? She's been on 2 dates in less than a week? I've got a hat to buy."

"So that was your mum we passed of the way out? She didn't seem that bad."  
"That's because she didn't speak to you. I'm expecting the Spanish Inquisition when I get back."  
We were chatting quietly after lunch.  
"So, what do you want to do tomorrow?"  
"As I don't have a local yet, pub?"  
"Sounds great."  
"Don't you have to get back to the shop?"  
"No, Stevie will cope on her own, don't you have to get back?"  
"No, I've had today and yesterday off, it was mum'a birthday yesterday, so I went home to see her, and I did go and visit Kate." I squeezed his hand as his voice faltered and there was a tinge of sadness in his eyes. "I told her about you, I think you would have got on had you ever met. " I stood up and stretched.  
"Come on, let's get back to the inevitable."

"You've been all afternoon. I've been rushed off my feet."  
"Sorry, did you get rid of mum?"  
"No, she did not 'get rid of me' and I'm very disappointed, you had a date and you didn't tell me?"  
"I didn't tell you because I haven't seen you, and I knew you would overreact."  
"Well I've been waiting all afternoon to meet him, so why don't the 3 of us go upstairs for a cup of tea and get to know each other better."  
"Sorry." I whispered in Gary's ear.  
"If she's anything like my mum, I can cope." It was his turn to give my hand a reassuring squeeze. "Quick question, where's the loo."  
"Straight ahead."  
"Ah Gary, milk and sugar?"  
"Just milk, thanks."  
"He's very nice, but I did notice a wedding ring."  
"Let me stop you there. I'm not seeing a married man, he's widowed."  
"How tragic."

He took a seat on the sofa next to me, I hoped she wouldn't ask after Kate straight away, and for once I wasn't disappointed.  
"I've not seen you around, are you new to the area?"  
"Yes, I moved about 6 weeks ago, I was offered a job and there were too many bad memories at home."  
"So, what is it you do?"  
"I'm a doctor."  
Mum turned to me and said 'good catch' in a slightly too loud voice.  
"Miranda tells me you're widowed." Drag me into this, thanks."May I asked what happened?"  
"Mum!"  
"No, it's fine. It started out as a perfectly normal day, as these often do. Kate was walking to school, she was a primary school teacher, when she suddenly collapsed. An ambulance was called, but it was always going to be too late. She had an undiagnosed heart murmur." He pause to collect his thoughts, once again I found myself giving his hand a reassuring squeeze, mum looked like she was going to ask something else when Gary started speaking again. "Sebastian."  
"Dr Gail, his ex brother in law." I explained to mum.  
"Had noticed how down I seemed to be so offered me the job here."  
"I'd better go, your father will be wondering where I am, nice to meet you Gary." I followed her out.  
"Couldn't you have been a bit more what I call tactful when asking about Kate?"  
"I'm sorry I was just curious."  
As he appeared to be understandably upset I grabbed the box of tissues when I rejoined him on the sofa.  
"I'm sorry about mum, but don't say I didn't warn you."  
"That's true, well I'd better get going, I've got work stuff to do for tomorrow." He gave me a hug and apologised for how upset he got.  
"I think I'd have been worried if you hadn't."  
"You're brilliant, I never dreamed that I would meet someone so understanding, and as much as I want to stay here with you, I need to spend the rest of the night with a mountain of dull and generally pointless paperwork." After a kiss that was definitely more lingering than the one a few nights ago. A little later my phone beeped, so I spent the next 10 minutes trying to remember where I had left it. After eventually tracking it to my coat pocket, read the text from Gary. 'Pick you up at 8 tomorrow xxx."

I had spent most of the day with Stevie giving me her so called dating advice and mum asking if I had any ideas for engagement party/wedding reception venues.

"So, lead the way." Once again Gary was right on time. When we got to the pub, apart from the staff, we were the only people over the age of 25, so we went into the games room, as it was much quieter and there was the chance to show off my spectacularly mediocre pool skills.  
"What would you like to drink?"  
"At the risk of sounding like my mother, a gin and tonic please."  
"So, how was your day." He asked handing me my drink.  
"Fine, well apart from Stevie offering me advice, and a visit from mum. How was yours?"  
"Busy, as it always is after having time off, but knowing that I was seeing you tonight helped the day go faster."  
"You are such a charmer."  
"Thanks, I do try. Same again?"  
"Yes please." I didn't notice when he came back with the drinks as I was texting Stevie, so to get my attention he decided to put the very cold glass on my arm, naturally this made me jump.  
"You're so mean."  
"No, I'm cheeky, let me make it up to you by letting you win at pool."  
"What do you mean, Let me win?"  
"OK we'll make it serious then, loser buys the drinks for the rest of the night." Help! May have to use my natural allure to distract him.

It's not going well so far, he's potted 3 balls, I've hit one. I know I should have been suspicious when Gary offered to help me. He slid his hand down my arm, supposedly to help me line up the shot, instead it sen shivers down my spine. Even more distracting was the feel of his breath on my neck. When we had set up the shot he leaned in closer, I thought this was to refine the angle, but no, it was to distract me by kissing me on the neck as I took the shot, so I missed. I mean how rude.

As the game wore on it was clear that I was going to lose, so I decided to exact my revenge. He had a tricky shot lined up, if he was only slightly off target he would pot the 8 ball. So when he was about to take the shot I pinched his bum, so he missed and potted the wrong ball, so I won by default.  
"That's not fair"  
"It may not be fair, but it is revenge, and I believe you're buying the drinks and I could do with a refill."  
The rest of the evening went much the same way, but with less pool playing.

After the pub I had an idea.  
"Do you know what I really fancy right now?"  
"Me?"  
"No" he looked rather hurt. "I mean apart from you, a kebab."  
"You're drunk aren't you?"  
"Yes, a bit, and you're not?"  
"Well..."  
"I'll take that as a yes then."  
As usual he insisted on walking me home, but we did stop and sit on a bench in the park to finish our kebabs, he noticed some stray sauce so he reached up and wiped it from my cheek. He replaced his thumb with his lips, he did regent this soon after.  
"Chilli sauce, really?"  
"Serves you right for getting me drunk."

We weaved our way back to the flat, and with a, thankfully chilli less, kiss at the door we made it back OK. He promised to text me to let me know he got back OK, and to organise going out again. I think I can safely say that I have a boyfriend.


	3. Chapter 3

So sorry for lack of updates lately, the inspiration seems to have clocked off for Christmas and New Years rather early. I also blame Sky for repeating F1 shows and the Ski Jumping, for well, happening. Think that's all the excuses out of the way, hopefully will be back with something more related to the story sooner rather than later. Once again sorry.


	4. Chapter 4

Things are still going wonderfully with Gary, although I am rather scared as we are going out with some of his friends from uni later.  
"Just because they knew Kate, doesn't mean that they don't want me to be happy, just be yourself and they will love you."

Annoyingly he was right, as usual (don't tell him I said that.) despite all my reservations they were lovely. In face I sort of knew one of them, Rebecca who was the wife of one of Gary's friends Julian (he prefers Jules) and the sister of one of my ex-housemates fiancée. So at least I had someone other than Gary that I sort of knew to talk to.

When the rest of the group had gone off to play the quiz machine, I was left with Jules and Marc (I had seen competitive Gary once, and once was enough, he got a little scary.)  
"I have only seen him a couple of times since Kate died, and it's great to see him happy again." Marc said.  
"You do make a lovely couple and you're clearly very good for him." Jules agreed.  
"Thanks I really like him, and I'm very impressed that he's survived the ordeal of meeting my mother."  
"I have heard tales of the housemate with the terrifying mother."  
"Are Emily and Max anyway? Keep trying to find the time to get up there before the wedding."  
"They're great, just trying to get all the little jobs done before the wedding."  
We were interrupted by Gary coming back.  
"Come on, we're playing doubles pool with Ross and Sinead.  
"How did you do."  
"Badly, we kept getting questions about Nobel Prize winners and football." I am very pleased to say that we won, partly due to my talent of accidentally making really tricky shots, my habit of missing easy ones did get a bit frustrating though.

After the pub had closed everyone else decided to go to a club, after we had said our goodbyes, and reminded Gary that we were going to Emily and Max's wedding a couple of weeks later, there was an awkward moment when we were deciding wether or not to go to another bar or just go home when Gary came up with a suggestion.  
"Why don't you come back to mine, it's just around the corner."

Despite that we were going just round the corner we still managed to get caught in a sudden downpour, so when we got back to Gary's we were soaked to the skin. He very kindly got me a towel for my hair and a pair of pyjamas that were clearly an unwanted gift, red tartan really isn't his style. He showed me where the kitchen was and asked me to put the kettle on. Seconds later we were in total darkness.  
"Miranda, that's not funny, put the light back on."  
"What? I haven't done anything other than put the kettle on."  
"Right" he said in a rather weary voice "I'll go and check the fuse box." I made it into the living room via a counter top, 2 dining room chairs and the coffee table, at least I know my phone makes a useless torch.  
"Nt fse, pr ct."  
"What?"  
"It's not the fuse, it must be a power cut."  
He came into the room carrying a box of candles and a torch.  
"Very organised." Our conversation was interrupted by my phone going off, it was Stevie.  
"What have you done now? All my electric has gone off."  
"Why do you think it's my fault?"  
"Because this sort of thing usually is." Rude.  
"In the shop or the flat maybe, but not the whole town."  
"How do you know it's the whole town?"  
"I'm not at home, I'm at Gary's and I very much doubt that everyone has turned in early for the night." I hung up before she could ask any more questions.

Whilst I was being accused of shorting out the town by Stevie (appropriate) Gary had lit all the candles and put a pan of water on to makes us a cup of tea, rather him than me, it looked rather complicated.  
"I'm very impressed with having all this to hand."  
"It's from uni, in the final year there had been a mix up with the flat so we ended up in the last place the landlord had and it was in, a less desirable part of town. In our first week the power went off 4 times, so we very quickly learned to have a stash in every room and one by the front door." He was interrupted by the pan boiling.  
"What happened."  
"We were supposed to be moved within the month, in the end we had it all year, not that I was there much, I lived round at Kate's I only stayed there when her landlord was due, adm I have to admit living somewhere where cooking was more than 'remove lid, add boiling water' and the kitchen could have created some pretty nasty biological weapons made a nice change."

Not only did we have no electric, but the central heating was not exactly reliable so when it decided to switch itself off again, and obviously we couldn't plug the heaters in Gary suggested warm up in a much more fun way, well it would have been more fun if his hands weren't like blocks of ice, it was so bad I made him make up a hot water bottle (it came in a set with the PJs, they were from his grandma) which was very romantic.

The next morning I was woken by the sound of a Gary fiddling with the bedside lamp. I guessed that the power wasn't back on and as I was very much under the duvet and cuddled up to Gary I didn't notice that there was no heating until I saw my own breath.  
"I was going to make you breakfast, but as that clearly isn't an option, I'm going to take you out." This was a good idea, especially as we still had to buy Em and Max a wedding present, but Sebastian's birthday was coming up so we had to get something for him too.


End file.
